Down To Earth brings you top environmental cases heard in Supreme Court, high courts & National Green Tribunal
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) May 21, 2024 directed a joint committee to examine whether construction on the flood plain area of river Yamuna – Noida in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh is permanent or not.
The joint committee would comprise representatives of member secretary, Central Pollution Control Board; chief engineer, Central Public Works Department (CPWD); chief executive of Noida Industrial Development Authority and district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar.
The committee was instructed to visit the site and ascertain the nature and extent of construction (permanent, temporary and area with full details of construction) of each of the 50 applicants, if due permission from the competent authority has been taken to raise such construction and submit the report within two months.
The plea of the applicants was that their properties are situated in different villages in Noida and that during the floods in Yamuna from July 12-15, 2023, polluted water of Yamuna mixed with sewage, hazardous chemical effluents and stinking sludge entered in the village and in their houses causing loss to them. It was not a natural calamity but a human-made disaster, they argued.
The applicants claimed compensation for loss of property, agricultural and horticultural products.
On March 11, 2024, NGT heard the plea of the counsel for the state of Uttar Pradesh that the applicants are not villagers but owners of farmhouses constructed illegally on the floodplain area of River Yamuna.
Hence, the tribunal March 11, 2024 had directed the counsel for the state to file the details of the properties of all the 50 applicants and had also asked the applicants to disclose the full particulars of their properties, including the land area under their ownership, extent of construction raised thereon, nature of construction and sanction from the competent authority to raise such construction.
An affidavit was filed on behalf of the district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar May 18, 2024, giving the full particulars of the applicants and details of the properties in a chart that revealed that these properties are mainly farmhouses. Photographs were also enclosed along with the report to show that the nature of construction is permanent.
Applicants have also filed responses, wherein it was not disputed that the applicants are owners of the farmland. Though a plea has been considered that the nature of their construction is not permanent, no proof has been enclosed along with the response to substantiate the same, they added.
NGT May 21 took suo motu cognisance of an application alleging illegal sand mining in Rupnagar district, Punjab and directed notices to be served to the department of mining and geology, Punjab; mining officer, Punjab; district magistrate; State Environment Impact Assessment Authority; Punjab Pollution Control Board and the Union of India. The matter has been listed for September 9, 2024.
The matter related to the district survey report for Rupnagar published in 2023 under the Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guideline, 2016 and the Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, 2020. However, the report failed to incorporate the basic measures to be undertaken to stop illegal mining.
NGT May 21 directed the constitution of a joint committee to look into the allegations of a brick kiln operating illegally in Takola Kalan village, Roorkee tehsil, Haridwar district, Uttarakhand.
The committee comprising the district magistrate of Haridwar and the Uttarakhand State Pollution Control has been asked to visit the site, collect relevant information and take appropriate preventive, remedial and punitive action within two months if any violation is found on the part of the proponent causing damage to the environment.
The brick kiln (Shiv Bricks Supply Int Bhatta) was operating near a residential area in violation of the siting criteria, according to the complainant, Sushil Tyagi. The brick kiln also had not adopted the zig-zag technology mandated by central government notification of February 22, 2022, the applicant added. It is still being run on old technology, in violation of the notification by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Tyagi added that he had filed official complaints to various authorities but no action has been taken.
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